ReverendBizzarre: ele cleave templar [6k life, 45k+ dps]

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on high level maps though i do need more life because monsters hit much harder.

Sounds scary but that is why I am running, get ready for it now, Dominating Blow on my current build. I think it might end up not only viable but really powerful for high level maps, but it is very hard to decide how to finish my build.

I hit a wall with my other builds at maps because I had not enough mitigation to solo. Having minions or teammates, in a sense, multiplies your EHP because monsters have other targets to choose. Skeletons and zombies suck though. Not only do you have to wear all the horrible uniques, but you also have to dedicate a whole 4L to skeleton totem or spectres and crap like that.

These minions keep every mod like Chance to get Frenzy Charges on Hit. They have the same HP and everything as before you convert them, so it is just a matter of killing fast enough to "turn the tide" of a battle. I still need a quality Increased Duration, but my minions will realistically last 1 min 15 sec or more, maybe 1m30s at high levels. Right now, I barely notice them dying; they die when they expire. Even temporarily taking off my increased duration gem for testing reasons in Cruel Fellshrine, I can get a mob of 6+ easily with only 30s duration.

Dominating Blow kind of sucks too though, because it costs assloads of mana, plus whatever support gems you link to it transfer to every minionmonster converted. I might like to run some utility like Life/Mana Leech or Melee Physical Damage, but MPD will only help melee minions and not any caster/archer I convert, so I am looking at more lower cost, attack type-agnostic supports like Increased Critical Strikes.

When you convert monsters with Dominating Blow, they join your team and you even get the auras from rare bosses. The Discipline-like one will stack with your Discipline and the haste-like one is ridiculous.. It is like having perma-double power quicksilver and Frenzy Charge stack.

I saw your thread a few days ago, but was planning to sword/board with Rathpith and wrote it off. I was experimenting with different attack skills and am thinking to give dual wield cleave a try but I don't know what to do...

This is my build as of next level (45 with +40 life from Oak): link

Main points:

- Triple perma-curses. Mainstay for tough mobs will be 12 & 13% quality Temporal Chains and Enfeeble. I have a RRBB 14% Windscream which is required for the 3rd curse obviously. Enfeeble is like having endurance charges on myself and works well with armor, but I am seriously starved for passive points and gem slots, so I think at best I will have a single gem unbuffed only for really hard mobs. I don't know there will be space on the bar even, maybe only weaponswap if that works.

The last curse is going to be situational, but probably something for damage. I understand the mechanics of Cleave (kind of) and that you want auras like Anger and Wrath more than Hatred, but I am thinking of running Hatred for my minions and for mitigation.

- Eldritch Battery. I saw someone mention that Mana Leech gem is not required at like 31 mana/sec. I am at 25.7 without clarity now and 34.4 with level 4 active.

Since there is almost no chance I will ever take RT/US/IR, I may take Zealot's Oath or Ghost Reaver to get the 50% chance to avoid stun (including block animations when the hit would have stunned) via having any ES and then drop EB. There are so many ways to go here that it is confusing.

- I took the 3 nodes down toward Duelist for 45% Increased Skill Duration. This is critical for getting the most out of Dominating Blow. It has synergy with various things like Conversion/Fire Trap, Molten Shell, Viper Strike, Poison Arrow, Firestorm etc.

My build now is at the tipping point. I need to make a decision what I will do. I could go pure caster with quality Proliferation + Shock Nova and AOE which is awesome for spreading shock and just switch to a 5L Primordial Staff to convert. I have a Moonsorrow and near max ES Rathpith Globe, so I could conceivably run Necromantic Aegis and wand or single sword on swap.

I could go Firestorm and Fire Trap and take a bit of +fire damage and just stack HP/AOE. Going dual wield swords and not using spells seems way more fun though.

This is one possible build more for sword/board and a lot of AOE, but I am going to be struggling to reach everything until the 80's: 104 points

This is a halfway AOE build more for running Hatred and trying to freeze lock: 107 points

What items I have available will be really important no matter what, but I think I am liking this last build more. I have a 5L ES/Armor chest with RRBBB that would probably be used for Dominating Blow.

Cleave might fit in my Windscream, using Elemental Proliferation, Life Leech & Weapon Elemental Damage,then run Blood Rage in another slot.

One interesting mechanic with Elemental Proliferation is that duration of freeze/shock/etc is reduced on rare/unique bosses, but when they receive the status ailment proliferated, it seems not to be. The strategy with Dominating Blow is to just mainly take the Rare and Champ packs but mow down the regular monsters. Freezing the regular monsters and letting the boss be freeze-locked will help take down their HP and clear the crowd, then I finish them with DB.

These are the swords I have lined up:



I also just got an ilvl 77 Corsair and 12% prismatic ring to mess around with, once I know what stats I am going for.

I will put some more of my available gear below. Any insight/advice/ideas are really appreciated because I am so confused what to do and having to refund or not add points but keep leveling sucks.

(Ignore some of the gems because it is on other characters)

How do you feel about marauder version?


Anything to change? Did I take any unnecessary nodes?

I'm guessing your video will showcase it best, but I am really questioning the viability of this build in later maps. Clearly groups are a non issue, but I tend to have periods where I enjoy soloing maps for that added sense of accomplishment. Now it looks like the damage is more than fine, again with the way this game works there just doesny seem to be a way to have really solid survivability against harder bosses without the use of skelly totem. Again, I'm not having an issue with your build in particular, but melee, and was curious what you think makes this build different Just wanted to get your two cents on this, as I imagine thetes a lot of positioning involved you don't see ranged builds having to worry about as much.

Tldr: thoughts/strats when soloing maps

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Loi wrote:

I'm guessing your video will showcase it best, but I am really questioning the viability of this build in later maps. Clearly groups are a non issue, but I tend to have periods where I enjoy soloing maps for that added sense of accomplishment. Now it looks like the damage is more than fine, again with the way this game works there just doesny seem to be a way to have really solid survivability against harder bosses without the use of skelly totem. Again, I'm not having an issue with your build in particular, but melee, and was curious what you think makes this build different Just wanted to get your two cents on this, as I imagine thetes a lot of positioning involved you don't see ranged builds having to worry about as much.

Tldr: thoughts/strats when soloing maps

not to much positioning you can facetank acutally, thats what the life leech gem on cleave is for, with high dps you will leech your back life quickly, in hard maps or when i want to face roll i use the more defensive gear that gives me around 13kdps+ and 4.3k+ life, with the hgih dps gear i have 17k+ dps and 3.6k life, its good for farming low level maps.

Thanks to VictorDoom for the fun build!

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Gravirict wrote:

6. Use totems! Rejuvenation totem, while slow to cast, gives nice regen and acts as a dummy. If you have spare slots, consider Summon Skeletons + Spell Totem, which are really great at distracting enemies. Remember you have the stats to use anything you desire!

Thanks for the helpful reminders! This build does so much dps in early Cruel that I started playing recklessly and thankfully you reminded me it's about time I socket Life Leech and ditch the Added Cold if I have to. Timing health flasks is quite tricky otherwise.

What would be the best defensive totems? Are there any interesting totem supports out there for melees?

I was thinking of using a totem to spread Blind condition. I tried flame totem but it's too slow. Was thinking perhaps Shock Nova? Has anyone made a useful Blind totem?

Today i made the early switch from pyhsical DW Duelist to Elemental Cleave. (I am Act 3 Cruel atm)
So far so good ... my current Stats are:

- 3100 HP
- 1200 Armor (1600 with Determination)
- 800 Evasion (2500 with Grace)
- 32%, 42%, 40% Resistance (Always able to put in Purity with 20% more Resistance if needed)
- 500 DPS Cleave (800 with Wrath and Anger - my Wrath is only Level 3 cause of low Intelligent)

--> Overall i have a low DPS cause i dont have rly good Weapons and my Rings/Amulett dont have Elemental DMG Stats. But i can facetank nearly everything. (Granite Flask always in the pocket)


My Passive Tree:



So i am thinking about where to go next ... there are 4 Possibilities in my eyes:

1. Going Iron Reflexes -> i dont want to go it right now, cause it would reduce the Effect of my "Leather and Steel" Skill (from Duelist Area) and i will drop them later + 45% Chance to Evade Attacks is actual pretty good. (The question is if 1600 Armor will be enough in Merciless?)

2. Going Resolute Technique -> More DMG and static DMG cause i cant miss and with 5% Crit Strike Chance i dont miss that much here. (I read somewhere RT pushs my "real" DPS too? Is that true and if its true about which dps numbers we are talking?)

3. Taking the 3 Elemental Weapon DMG Nodes in the middle tree for more DPS + the Resistance before -> I dont rly need Resistance at the Moement and i have to spend at least 6 Points to get them all -> pretty much to afford.

4. Going from Templar Area -> 2 possible ways: 1. the Elemental DMG near Amplify + the Manareg (My Mana is ok with 3% Mana Leech Gem - even with only 120 Mana left on having 4 Auras i dont go oom using 1 Potion) 2. Going left and picking up all the Life Nodes on the way to " Static Blows" - Big Investment and i think 3100 Life are enough for the Moment and i would get more from DMG cause of Life Leech.


Whats in your opinion the, for my Situation, "best" way? Or did i miss some more opportunities? (I made the important questions thicker so you have a better overview)

Im surviving fine in high lvl maps with 3 granites and determination, it pops my reduction to 60+ Havent used enduring cry on this character ever, which would probably add more survivability. I am above 10k damage with a 20% increased aoe gem though, so i wouldnt consider myself 100% melee.

Skelly totem for the tough situations.

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First off, thanks for helping the other out with tips!

1.I took static blows pretty late, at around level 80, you can take it earlier if you can, if you do a lot of lightning the shock will last longer, the good part is that shocked enemeis take 40% more damage per shock charge, which is quite a huge bonus.

2.I pondered the same thing for quite a while, and it tunred out that i cant really get that much armor and resistances as well in only 6 nodes, its a good trade-off in my opinion, armor is quite important, you need around 6k armor for the endgame so you can mitigate most hits.

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll probably end up taking static blows later too, seems to be the wiser choice. As for Body & Soul, you're right, there seems to be no better alternative for those 6 points. The 40% hp at the Duelist area is interesting, but with grace activated the 60% armor sounds great. I just don't like the armor mechanics in this game. Apparently, the higher the damage of a blow, the lower the % of damage armor mitigates. Still going for the B&S though.

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Thanks for the helpful reminders! This build does so much dps in early Cruel that I started playing recklessly and thankfully you reminded me it's about time I socket Life Leech and ditch the Added Cold if I have to. Timing health flasks is quite tricky otherwise.

What would be the best defensive totems? Are there any interesting totem supports out there for melees?

I was thinking of using a totem to spread Blind condition. I tried flame totem but it's too slow. Was thinking perhaps Shock Nova? Has anyone made a useful Blind totem?

Glad I could help! Life leech grants great survivability, specially when cleaving large groups.

Rejuvenation totem works great as a defensive totem used along with other defensive abilities. Whenever you face a group of hard hitting mobs or rare/boss, do the following:

- Cast Enfeeble (Add Enduring Cry if necessary)
- Drop Rejuvenation totem
- Activate Granite flask (preferably with the Iron Skin mod)

Along with health flasks, doing this will make you much harder to kill. If the mobs have ele/chaos dmg use the respective resist flask.

Finally, for those who are wondering, taking Resolute Technique is HIGHLY recommended. I'd say its essential to the build. Your crit chance just wont be high enough to justify the sacrifice of this amazing passive. I guarantee your dps will radically increase.

Doesnt weapon elemental damage gem/nodes only affect skills like infernal blow or lightning strike?
Just wondering how it affects cleave, it being non elemental. - thanks.

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Kermodei wrote:

Doesnt weapon elemental damage gem/nodes only affect skills like infernal blow or lightning strike?
Just wondering how it affects cleave, it being non elemental. - thanks.

it affects all the elemental damage on your weapons, rings, ammy and gloves, and from your aura's.